Gymnast Tung wins Vietnam’s second ticket to 2020 Tokyo Olympics

With an excellent performance at the ongoing 49th FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany on October 6 in the men’s vault qualification, Tung reached the finals with a score of 14.633.

According to the provisions of the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG), in order to qualify for the Olympic Games, contestants must be among the Top 3 of each category.

However, among the eight athletes qualified for the finals in the men’s vault, five of them have won tickets to Tokyo 2020 in the team events, so Tung although ranked 5th in the qualification automatically got an Olympics berth prior to the finals, which is scheduled for this weekend.

The results of Tung (5th in the rankings) in the men’s vault qualification at the 49th FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Germany on October 6. (Source: gymnastics.sport)

Tung is the first Vietnamese gymnast to qualify for the next Summer Olympic Games and the second Vietnamese athletic to make it to Tokyo 2020, after swimmer Nguyen Huy Hoang qualified last July. Teenager Hoang met the Olympic Qualifying Time at the 18th FINA World Championships in the Republic of Korea for his 07:52.74 finish in the men’s 800 m free freestyle.

For Tung personally, this is the first time he has won a ticket to the prestigious quadrennial sporting event in the world thanks to his talent.

The 1995-born is a talented gymnast of Vietnam athletics. He is also the first Vietnamese gymnast to win gold at the 2017 Asian Artistic Gymnastics Championships.

Also in the Stuttgart’s event from October 4-13, Tung's teammate Dinh Phuong Thanh was unsuccessful and only ranked 75th in the men's individual all-around with 77.465 points. Thanh also ranked 19th in men's parallel bars with 14.466 points.

In the women's side, Vietnam had three female gymnasts attending, however, Do Van Anh, Nguyen Katelyn and Nguyen Doan Quynh Nam unfortunately also failed to progress.